You are wrong: what now?

[louis]

more wrong

Hypothetical: whatever your own beliefs that you hold now, tomorrow a certain new theory comes out, receives universal acceptance, and clearly contradicts everything you believe in.

Question: do you abandon your beliefs? If so, why? And what will you do instead?

Reason: I have often see people on forums claim that if there was a way to prove their own religion wrong, then these people would no longer have a reason to to be "good" - to hold themselves in a position of moral/ethical obligation to themselves, to others, or society.

This I have never understood.

How would you react, though? Personally, I have never accepted any form of moral absolute, so my own moral/ethical compass I consider entirely personal.

More from Louis....
I posted my first reply before reading ALL the other
replies and now I feel I should add something....
I have never practised any form of religion and have
been quite content for all my seventy years.
So the question is reversed for me - what if someone
should discover a way to PROVE that one of those
belief systems is ACTUALY TRUE ?
For example, most people cling to the notion of an
"afterlife" - a way to survive death by staying on the
good side of some particular "God or gods". There's
no way to know WHICH God until you actually "wake up
dead" and then it's too late if you've picked the wrong one.
What if there was a way to know the "winning side" while
you're still alive ? Wouldn't you grab it immediately ?

 

[louis]

maybe I'm wrong

Hypothetical: whatever your own beliefs that you hold now, tomorrow a certain new theory comes out, receives universal acceptance, and clearly contradicts everything you believe in.
Question: do you abandon your beliefs? If so, why? And what will you do instead?

From Louis....
An important question - let me fill in some background.
As I have never practised any religion, I have no clear
perception of the things that matter so much to believers
( an afterlife, the supernatural, magical events, etc. ).
To be brutally honest, I suspect ALL religion to be an
invention of the human mind and maybe NOTHING MORE.
I have about a half dozen friends who agree with me.
But that still leaves about six BILLION people who
DON'T agree. If ANY of them are even PARTLY right, then this world around me is VASTLY DIFFERENT than what
my senses show me ! Is my own perception really that
limited or do other people just interpret things differently ?
Do they have SENSES I don't have or do they just prefer to play GAMES with their own perception ?
People who see things that are not real are usually
considered DELUSIONAL ( insane ? ). If their delusions
are just as real as anything else, then who's insane ?
Is the fact that I DON'T see it mean that I'm mentaly
disabled - or is it the other way around ?
Sorry if that rant offends anybody - feel free to retaliate.

 

[louis]

alternatives

Question: do you abandon your beliefs? If so, why? And what will you do instead?

From Louis...
I understood your question to be : What if the worst
possible scenario comes to pass ? For example, what
if you "wake up dead" and find you're not in heaven
or hell or anything similar to what you expected ???
Do you have a "contingency plan" for such a possibility ?
But, from the replies I've read so far, NOBODY could even get past the suggestion that their beliefs might be ... WRONG !

 

[StrangeQuark]

Question: do you abandon your beliefs? If so, why? And what will you do instead?

From Louis...
I understood your question to be : What if the worst
possible scenario comes to pass ? For example, what
if you "wake up dead" and find you're not in heaven
or hell or anything similar to what you expected ???
Do you have a "contingency plan" for such a possibility ?
But, from the replies I've read so far, NOBODY could even get past the suggestion that their beliefs might be ... WRONG !

Hah . . . you're right. I just can't do it.